You may have noticed that the Apple Support Communities has gone downhill in the latest interation. The User Experience was severally impacted. The layout of the content list, thread postings, and reply page is horrendous for folks like me who have a small screen. ASC seem to have been design for a 27" screen. Hiroto, a ASC contributor, has implemented a Cascading Style Sheets to tidy up these web pages for large and small screens. Hiroto has been contributing to the ASC since 2001.
Hiroto's css coding got caught up in the fallout over the controversy of the ACS changes. Apple requests that the changes be tested on a late release of Firefox and Mac OS X. I drafted myself to get the changes tested.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6452806 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6428850I am looking for folks to test adjustment to the formatting of the Content List and Reply web pages in Apple Support Communities ( ASC ). I am looking for testing in a late version of Firefox in Mac OS X 10.9.
The changes are amazing for small screen users like me. They make the ASC forums useable again.
Tested in these enviroments:Mac OS X
Firefox 31 in Mac OS X 10.8.5 with screen size 21.5"
Firefox in Mac OS X 10.6
Firefox 24 in Mac OS X 10.5.8
SeaMonkey in Mac OS X 10.5.8
TenFourFox 23 in Mac OS X 10.4.11
Other OS's
Chrome 34 in Windows XP sp3
Firefox 31 in Windows XP sp3
Firefox 26 in Fedora 19
For the css code: See the attached zip file. Pick the one with the latest date. Should something be wrong with the latest and greatest try the prior one. I recommend you use TextWrangler to view the css source.
http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/Here is how to let Firefox know about this style sheet. Stylish supports the the direct importation of css rules.
-- Download and Install:
You need to download stylish in Firefox. Firefox will notice the download and ask you if it is
ok to install.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/stylish/-- Using Stylish:
firefox > tools > add-ons
click on 'User Styles' in the left column < Yes, they changed the name >.
This will bring up the stylish stuff in the middle of the page.
click on "write new style" button
fill in a name of your user style sheet. I used ACS User styles.
copy and paste in the style sheet you download.
click on preview. Firefox will update displayed pages with new style rules. No need to restart.
click on save when done. This will permanately add the style rules to Firefox and quit the edit.
Enjoy the new ACS web pages.
( Optional. )
To change a style sheet, I find it easier to change in TextWrangler. I feel it's best to user TextWrangler for these changes.
-- make your changes to the css in TextWrangler.
-- copy text in TextWrangler
-- switch to User Styles
-- highlight all
-- delete all text
-- paste text
-- click on preview to see changes.
Background
CSS effects the presentation of data. It moves data around, hides data, changes colors, changes margins, etc. There is the possibility of inserting data, but this sheet doesn't insert data.
Figuring what to write in a css file is difficult but reading isn't so bad.
example:
Code:
/* thread info */
.jive-thread-info {
padding: 10px 40px !important;
margin: 0px !important;
}
Code:
.jive-thread-info { -- This is what is to be changed.
padding: 10px 40px !important; -- changes inner space around text
-- !important; This change has the highest priority.
margin: 0px !important; -- changes outer space around object. "Driving outside the lines"
-- set to 0 so to nullify.
Robert